One other thing I was thinking about while playing this lately is that it seems like the game could stand a bit of rebalancing to make the battle system more important for progression and make long chains of working and/or interdependent events with each girl less important. With some rare exceptions like Ms Jackson and Cherry, the battles don't really seem to do much for you. Early on most of the battles are impossible because your stats are too low. Later the battles are pretty much all trivial because your stats are so high. So the actual battle skills have minimal impact except for the first couple of battles with Ms Jackson.
Progression is currently almost entirely dependent on your people skill and on a few specific scenes with Cherry, Ms Jackson, Tori, and Chloe that upgrades your stat cap. It would be nice to have some smaller upgrades for a wider range of scenes rather than a few big upgrades for only a few specific scenes. That give you some options to follow a less linear path if you wanted to.
BTW, I do AGREE w most of what u said----but again, very little was actually an issue w GRINDING.
1st, Let's be clear: This is *NOT* strictly a game, nor is it strictly a VN; But there are elements of both. Good writing (story--VN) is important [& some of the script sucks, but I can live w it ] but most of the "game time" is actually spent [& by "game time" I mean *BOTH* time IRL, & "game days"] on either 1) GRINDING [ex, work] or 2) DEPENDENCIES/aka bottlenecks (things that affect grinding. These are all technical choices that the Dev makes.
Time: Having work split up (realistic) into many time slots, makes sense if you want to (realistic) do different things (maybe WORK 1 day/talk/coffee/etc [mult girls @ work] instead of just work all day.) Built-in bonus/penalty if you eat/skip lunch;
[Just an example] "Why, from a story perspective, are events at preset times?"----Again, remember this isn't *JUST* a VN. Most events revolve *NOT* around the story, but around
1) REALISTIC (ie, days/weeks/time/etc) &
2) Work/Practical &
3) DEV choices 4 "RPG" Questline (could be called "Dependencies" [but that could also include all #1-3])
None of these may actually rely, or even make sense from a "story perspective." [Comes closer if your story is that of a working man, but again, #3 often wouldn't make sense]
If you remove your "story" part, your Question is answered by #1&2. (#3 isn't needed for most)
*Glassix* is a good example. [Even more detailed times!] Every girl has a specific schedule (date/time/place) JUST LIKE IRL;
Keep in mind that you & I might disagree w Dev choices or times, etc, but that's something they set.
[I think MC should be able to eat BF & still be on time to work]
-->> This is much closer to a "Simulation" (Realistic) than nearly any VN; The more REALISTIC you get, the more many things are predetermined. (IRL you have to: Eat/Sleep/drive [travel]/work (or some way make $) /limited everything, including TIME)
Yup, we agree on a lot more about this than we don't. We disagree on some terminology, but the effect is the same. And you're right - never been a professional coder. I've done testing (unit and acceptance), I've written requirements, and other related activities but never been the coder. I never enjoyed coding enough to pursue it. And I've always been grateful that others do. And the few times I've done line by line decomposition of someone else's program to be able to correct it I've regretted letting my bosses know that I have even a hint of programming knowledge.
For me, deciding to create a simulation, vn, rpg, etc. is a writing choice first and then an implementation problem. The decisions on how a character improves is a world building/writing choice first and then an implementation. Many games (and stories) suffer from implications of the choices in the writing that show up later. (The audience's support for Luke's interest in Leia in "A New Hope" was very different in 1977 than it is today when everyone knows they're brother and sister. I sincerely doubt Lucas was trying to create a cringe moment for people watching the film again - it was just a good love triangle moment for some dramatic tension. Now, except in porn games . . .)
As a consequence, my questions in my last post are examples of the types of questions a developer should be asking about the world building/writing before a single line of code exists. The player experience of a game should be on purpose, not accidental. But if the developer mixes RPG, VN, and other elements, then the mix has to be thought through carefully because the different approaches lead to different player/reader experiences and they are not automatically compatible.
So, if the developer wants me to go to the gym 10 times because that's what makes sense, cool. I can like it, accept it, or not play the game.
Fun discussion. Thank you.
Hi, guys. I really appreciate your bountiful feedbacks.
I just skimmed through most of your ideas real quick.
As soon as our January update is done, we'll definitely take time to read all of them.
Some of the ideas that I read just now are already planned to be added within a few months.
Such are:
1. Skip day (+attendance) - in areas that MC can go to bed (only during morning hours due to some technical issue)
2. We are going to get some of story event's condition to be more accessible or easier.
3. Regarding stat grind, we are going to add events to make it less dull.
4. RPG elements and the system is still on debate between us but we do have some plans for that.
5. Work attendance will be significantly less burdensome as soon as MC gets next promotion + help of one of his sidekick.
Other than that we have some other plans for the game.
For last few months (since last April), we've been working on some fundamental for the game rather than just stacking up contents to attract more patrons.
I can't reveal everything that we've been working on since there could be some changes and tweaks to those new stuff but I'll spill some of the things that are 100% sure to be added within a couple of months.
1. Some changes to UI to enhance quality.
2. 2nd layer of talk dialogues and random events to add more flavors (This might take more than just a few months...)
3. We are working on revamping all the old reward events to the current quality (more variations and triggers)
4. Removing all the unnessary black screens in all the events. (98% of existing black screens)
5. Screen fade issue that was hurting your eyes (This is almost done that it's going to be added in January update, at least most of it.)
6. More flavorful effects to stat title gaining, unlocking locations and rewards, and chapter.
All these changes + some more re-touches to the early part of the game will enhance the quality of the phase we think.
We'll eventually add chapter skip but not for a few months as for the current plan.
The battle minigame is not in our priority for now and for next few months. We can't handle everything right now due to our lack of time and ability to be honest.
We intended to make a game that is a bit slow-paced but where the characters feel more dynamic and real, and the world feels quite real and flavorful.
Although the goal remains pretty much the same so far, we do have another important goal that is to make a game that is enjoyable to a lot of you. So, we'll keep on listening to your opinions and feedbacks to make this game better.
Some of you might think that we've been stubborn with grind and pace issue.
Our initial plan was to see how gamers would feel about the pace once all the planned elements are added in the game.
However, we already agree that there needs to be some changes to the pace. (I'm not sure if we agree enough on this but we'll take more consideration on this matter for sure.)
And, we are putting some time and thoughts upon ways to reduce and manage the file size of the game but nothing has been decided yet that I don't really have much to share for the time being.
Since we are in the middle of update process, I need to get back to work that I have to say good bye for now.
But before I go, I really want to say thank you for putting your time and thoughts to give us your feedbacks.
I'll definitely take time to thoroughly read all the feedbacks of yours after the January update and share it with my friend.
We really appreciate as it helps us making a better game to play.
Not only the three of you but all the other members of this community as well.
Thanks you all. Thank you so much. I hope to see you again soon.
p.s. Sorry for not being able to respond to all of you more often. We've mostly been behind our schedule for our job and game-making since we started this project that it wasn't so easy for me to be active. Still, we'll try to make more time to communicate more. It's been hard but we have a high hope that we'll eventually make this into an enjoyable experience for many of you.
